Reverchon Park

Reverchon Park — WPA stonework, a century-old ballpark and a French botanist’s name

Reverchon Park is the oldest working park in central Dallas and the one with the most layers. The city bought its first thirty-six acres in 1914, on the edge of town, partly to clear a shantytown known as Woodchuck Hill; it opened as Turtle Creek Park and was renamed in 1915 for Julien Reverchon, the French-born botanist who arrived in Dallas County as a teenage colonist and left behind the finest collection of Texas plants in existence. Wedged into the Oak Lawn hillsides where Turtle Creek cuts down toward the Trinity, the park now covers something over forty acres and carries a ballpark dedicated in 1920, a grandstand from 1924, a floral amphitheater from 1938 and a whole hillside of Depression-era stone stairs, bridges and terraces. It was named a Lone Star Legacy Park by the Texas Recreation and Park Society in 2016. Its restored baseball field reopened on April 26, 2025.

Highlights

• The Iris Bowl — a small stepped stone amphitheater at the northern foot of the western hill, ringed with iris beds and formally dedicated on April 20, 1938; it is routinely called the crown jewel of the Dallas park system.
• The WPA Hillside Terrace — a network of stone stairways, bridges, walkways, lookouts and seating built into the bluff by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1937, still substantially intact.
• The 1920s ballpark — a field dedicated in 1920 with a grandstand erected in 1924, seating around 3,500, reopened in April 2025 after a $5.5 million restoration by the City of Dallas and Dallas Independent School District.
• The stone council ring — a circle of stone benches around a large stone picnic table crowning the western hill, one of the WPA crews’ most photographed pieces of work.
• Turtle Creek and its stone bridge — the open northern stretch of the creek still runs between WPA-built banks, crossed by a picturesque stone bridge from the same campaign.
• Katy Trail access — the eastern hillside connects by stone stairs directly to the Katy Trail, so a jog and a plunge into hundred-year-old stonework can be the same outing.

What’s inside

The park’s heart sits in a hollow between two wooded hills, laid out by the Kansas City landscape firm Hare & Hare with meandering paths, a large play area and groves of oaks and pecans. Everything else climbs the slopes.

• The restored baseball field with grandstand, dugouts, bullpens, scoreboard and restrooms.
• The Iris Bowl and its beds of bearded and Louisiana irises, replanted in the 2010 renovation.
• The Reverchon Recreation Center, opened in the mid-1970s, with a gymnasium, fitness room and roughly forty programs a year — health screenings, tutoring, athletic leagues, yoga, volleyball and after-school care among them.
• An accessible playground built in 2002, developed jointly with Texas Scottish Rite Hospital so that children with disabilities could use it alongside everyone else.
• Tennis and basketball courts on the flatter ground.
• Extensive WPA stonework — stairs, terraces, lookouts, benches and the creek bridge — spread across both hills.

What to do and who it’s for

• Runners and cyclists — the Katy Trail runs 3.5 miles along the old Missouri–Kansas–Texas railbed right past the park, with a twelve-foot concrete path and a separate soft-surface running track.
• Baseball fans and players — a genuine period ballpark in daily use, home field for North Dallas High School.
• Gardeners and iris people — the Bowl is a working iris collection with a lineage running back through Reverchon’s own family.
• History and architecture walkers — some of the best surviving New Deal stonework in Dallas, and the historic features are under consideration for city landmark designation.
• Families — an accessible playground, shaded lawns and a recreation center with year-round classes.
• Uptown residents — for the dense blocks around it, this is the neighborhood park, and it functions as one every evening.

Getting there and practicalities

The park lies in Oak Lawn along Turtle Creek, at the western edge of Uptown, close enough to downtown that the towers show above the treeline. The most pleasant approach is on foot or by bicycle along the Katy Trail, which links the park at its southern end to Victory Park and the arena and at its northern end to Mockingbird Station — both DART rail stops — so a car-free visit is genuinely easy. On the DART network, Market Center Station on the Green and Orange lines is the closest rail option to the west. Entry is free; Dallas city code closes public parks from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., and the recreation center keeps its own posted hours, closing Sundays. Allow an hour to walk the flats and the ballpark, two if you climb both hills and work through the stonework properly. On heat: this is one of the better-shaded parks in central Dallas, because the hillsides carry mature oaks and pecans and the WPA seating was deliberately tucked under tree cover. Even so, the ballpark and the open play area take full afternoon sun in July and August, and the hill stairs are a real climb in ninety-five-degree heat. The creek hollow stays noticeably cooler than the surrounding streets.

When to visit

Spring is the season the park was built for: the Iris Bowl comes into flower in late March and April, the hillsides green over, and baseball starts. Summer pushes everyone into the tree shade on the slopes and under the grandstand; come early, and use the hollow rather than the open ground. Autumn is the quiet reward — pecans and oaks turning through late October and November, comfortable temperatures for the stairs, and the clearest views out of the hilltop lookouts once the leaves thin. Winter reveals the bones: with the canopy gone you can finally read the full geometry of the WPA terraces, the retaining walls and the creek banks, and a cold bright January morning is the best time to photograph them.

Worth knowing

The name belongs to Julien Reverchon (1837–1905), born at Diemoz in France and brought to Texas at nineteen by his father Jacques Maximilien; they reached the Fourierist colony of La Réunion, west of the Trinity, in December 1856, just before it dissolved. Reverchon stayed, farmed at Rose Cottage, joined the Torrey Botanical Club of New York and spent his last decade as professor of botany at the Baylor college of medicine and pharmacy in Dallas. At his death his herbarium held more than 20,000 Texas specimens covering over 2,600 species, considered the best such collection in the world; the Missouri Botanical Garden acquired it. Four plant species carry his name. His great-niece Marie Caillet carried the botanical line forward as an iris breeder, with five cultivars named for her. The park’s other founding story is stranger. In 1902 city alderman and water commissioner C. A. Gill pushed through a test well near the Turtle Creek pumphouse; drilling passed 2,500 feet and struck drinkable artesian water in the Paluxy sands and, deeper, heavily mineralized water at 99 degrees from the Glen Rose stratum. The Gill Well Sanitarium and bathhouse opened in January 1907, a natatorium followed in 1912, and Dallas took the waters until the business folded around 1916. The city bought the land in November 1919 for $21,500 and opened a public mineral-water pavilion in the park in February 1925; the wells lie capped and buried today. Baseball had already taken root — organized play dates to at least 1921, and Southern Methodist University used the field from 1977 to 1980. Around 1955 most of Turtle Creek was diverted into a pressure sewer, leaving only the northern stretch open. The park slid badly in the 1980s and early 1990s, then turned around after a 1998 cleanup that drew nearly five hundred volunteers; Friends of Reverchon Park formed in 2005, the Iris Bowl was renovated by 2010, and a 2018 scheme to replace the historic ballpark with a new multi-purpose stadium, fronted by Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson, collapsed in October 2020 when the development group missed its deadlines. The field was restored instead.

Visitor tips

• Take the hills, not just the flats. Most first-time visitors stay by the ballpark and never see the stone terraces, lookouts and council ring that are the real reason to come.
• Time a spring visit to the Iris Bowl. The bloom window is short — late March into April — and the amphitheater is a plain stone hollow the rest of the year.
• Combine it with the Katy Trail. Enter from the trail on the eastern hillside and you get the park’s best sequence of stairs and overlooks on the way in.

Questions and answers

Who was Julien Reverchon? A French-born botanist (1837–1905) who came to the La Réunion colony near Dallas in December 1856. He assembled more than 20,000 Texas plant specimens covering over 2,600 species, later acquired by the Missouri Botanical Garden, and four species bear his name.

How old is the park? The city purchased the first thirty-six acres in 1914 and the park opened as Turtle Creek Park, taking Reverchon’s name in 1915. It is among the oldest parks in Dallas and grew past forty acres in the following decades.

What is the Iris Bowl? A small stepped stone amphitheater surrounded by iris beds, dedicated on April 20, 1938, and built as part of the same Depression-era stonework campaign that shaped the hillsides. Its main renovation was completed in 2010.

Is the baseball field still used? Yes. After a two-year, $5.5 million restoration by the city and Dallas ISD it reopened on April 26, 2025, with the historic 1924 grandstand preserved, and it serves as North Dallas High School’s home field.

Who built the stone stairways and terraces? Works Progress Administration crews, between 1935 and 1937. The centerpiece is the Hillside Terrace — stairways, bridges, paths, lookouts and seating cut into the bluff — and these features are under consideration for city landmark designation.

Can I reach the park on foot or by bike? Easily. The Katy Trail, a 3.5-mile rail trail on the former Missouri–Kansas–Texas line, passes the eastern hillside, connecting Victory Park at one end with Mockingbird Station at the other.

Is there shade? More than most Dallas parks. The hillsides hold mature oaks and pecans and the WPA seating was placed under them, though the ballpark and open play areas are fully exposed on summer afternoons.

What was the Gill Well? A city test well drilled from 1902 past 2,500 feet, which struck 99-degree mineral water. It supported a sanitarium and bathhouse from January 1907 and a public mineral-water pavilion in the park from February 1925. The wells are capped and buried now.